Media Effects Research Laboratory

Media Effects Research Laboratory

Would you trust a robot to diagnose your cancer? According to researchers at Penn State, people with high confidence in machine performance and also in their own technological capabilities are more likely to accept and use digital healthcare services and providers.

People's stereotypes regarding different locations around the world influence whether they feel secure in storing their data in cloud service centers in those locations, according to researchers at Penn State, who also found that stereotypes regarding brand authority influence people's trust in cloud services.

Does sitting in a coffee shop versus at home influence a person's willingness to disclose private information online? Does the on-screen appearance of a public location's online "terms and conditions" have an effect? According to researchers at Penn State, the answer to both questions is "yes," especially if the user has a tendency to instinctively distrust public wireless networks.

Fitness apps are easy to download and can help motivate people to start workout routines, but that may not be enough to sustain those routines in the long run. However, Penn State researchers suggest there may be ways to tweak those apps to inspire a deeper commitment to a fitness routine and help users hit their fitness goals.

An open design to encourage collaboration and creativity anchors state-of-the-art plans for the Donald P. Bellisario Media Center, set to open in the heart of Penn State’s University Park campus in 2020.

Mary Beth Oliver, a Penn State faculty member renowned for her research in entertainment psychology and her mentorship of students, has been named the inaugural Donald P. Bellisario Professor of Media Studies.

Everyone loves a good story, and those stories can have emotional and political effects that are long-lasting. Fuyuan Shen, professor of advertising-public relations at Penn State, wants to know more about the impact of stories. He studies narratives, their influence and what makes them effective or ineffective.

Penn State alumnus James P. Jimirro -- whose illustrious career has included roles as the founding president of both The Disney Channel and Disney Home Video, and who revived the National Lampoon brand -- has endowed a $1 million professorship in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

People tend to think you either engage with a piece on interactive media, or you don't. However, researchers suggest that when people are interacting with media there is a whole sequence of physical and psychological actions and assessments that lead up to engagement. Knowing how user engagement works could lead to stickier online advertisements and more interactive websites.

Researchers found that lower-paid Amazon Mechanical Turk microworkers — or Turkers — were more likely to reduce their efforts, as well as experience psychological states that could impact the results of the study. Microwork sites offer scientists and other researchers an inexpensive way to recruit participants, who often agree to be paid well below the minimum wage.

App developers should be open and obvious when they're asking users for private information, such as location data. Users' trust and engagement may hinge on perceptions about how the app uses their data and whether it seeks user input before delivering personalized services.

Faculty members in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications are tapping technology to help students strengthen their storytelling skills or helping provide perspective for what communications-related technology means for society.

Virtual reality developers should be careful about incorporating too many fantasy effects if they want to program VR stories for journalists. If there are too many bells and whistles in a story, credibility could suffer, say researchers at Penn State.